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I love the Fall. I love the outerwear, the non-frizzy hair weather conditions, and EVERYTHING pumpkin. Pumpkin coffee, breads, and now even my body scrub is getting into the pumpkin celebration. I updated my go to body scrub ingredients (which I realized I have never posted before..be on the lookout for a post coming soon!) to give it a Fall, pumpkin twist!

Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly in a bowl. Slowly drizzle the oil while working it into the sugar mixture. The final product should be wet, but not soaked. Use during a steamy shower or bath and enjoy!

I am sure you are all familiar with the high fat , high calorie banana split from our childhood. It looks a lot like this picture and is a sugar bomb of everything unhealthy. Yes, a random treat is one thing, but try my Banana Split ice cream recipe for a treat that doesn't have to be a cheat!

Ingredients

2 Frozen bananas

3 Medjool dates

1/4 cup cold unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1/4 vanilla extract

2 TBSP Cocoa or Cacao Powder

3 ice cubes

1 TBSP chopped walnuts

Raw cherries

Blend all ingredients except chopped walnuts. Pour yummy mixture into a bowl and top with nuts and cherries if desired. Enjoy!

Moisturizers, night creams, face packs, peel off masks, toners, massage creams, scrubbers and gels; everything is stacked up on your dressing table. Have I left out something ladies? These are all, right? We use these beauty products to get that wonderful glow. But needless to say, nothing has worked out yet. We keep wondering how on earth these Celebrities manage to keep the glow of their skin on for years. Magic or expensive cosmetics? No, the name of the magic is yoga. Yoga is the answer to all physical, mental and spiritual development.

Dull and loathsome skin besides being the result of external sources like unhealthy lifestyle also happens due to mental conditions like stress and unhappiness. It is easy for people when they say to throw away all stress but we alone know how difficult that is. Yoga helps out effectively when it comes to reducing stress and worries.
First we’ll give you some yoga exercise that will help you to calm your mind drop down all stress.

Yoga For Glowing Skin

1. Breathing exercise:

Control your breathing through counts that will rejuvenate your mind and that is what makes this pose of yoga for beautiful skin so popular.

Sit on the floor with legs crossed.

Close your eyes, relax and breathe normally.

Now breathe in deeply through both nostrils with the count of 10.

Hold your breath, again by counting 10.

Count another 10 to release the breath.

Practice this breathing technique for 5-10 minutes.

This breathing exercise will help you control your mind and you won’t get stressed out easily.

2. Shirshasana (Headstand):

Shirshasana is a bit difficult pose but is great if you want to maintain a long-lasting glow and healthy look in your face. Since you are standing on your head, blood starts flowing downwards, thereby improving blood circulation in your face. By reversing the flow of gravity, a headstand simulates a “face lift” by letting your skin hang in the opposite direction, which means getting rid of wrinkles. The inverted position of a headstand also flushes fresh nutrients and oxygen to the face, creating a glowing effect on the skin.

Place a yoga mat on the floor. Beginners may use a few stacks of blanket or anything that is a bit soft and will give proper support to your head.

Sit on the floor in kneel-down position. Remember your teachers punishing you asking you to kneel down. Keep your spine straight and keep your hands on your knees. Take a few normal breaths and relax.

Next bring your hands in front of you on the mat or blankets (whichever you may be using), elbows on the floor and interlock your palms. See above picture.

Next position your head in between your interlocked palms. Refer to the above picture. Be careful not to hurt yourself. Take a few relaxing breaths before we move on to the next step

Next try lifting up your body in a mountain position. Start with your knees, lift your hips and now you are supporting this position with your forearms, head and your toes. This is like a downward dog pose. See picture above. Balancing up till this position does take a lot of stamina, but with practice you will be able to do this. Balance yourself till this step and proceed again when you are totally comfortable with this pose.

This step requires a bit more test of your balance. Now that you have partially balanced on your head, lifted up your hips and standing on your toes, try lifting up one leg off the floor slowly and steadily. To make it easier, walk your feet towards your head, unless you feet would naturally want to lift off.

Now that you have lifted one leg, try lifting the other leg too. This will require a lot of strength on your arms and hand. But with practice, you’ll be able to master it. Beginners can ask friends to help them in balancing or you may also take support of the wall.

To come down, bend your knees and curl down or bring down one leg and then the other as you had gone up.

Do you have a mini panic attack when your yoga instructor says it's time to work on Headstands? Whether you've tried inversions a hundred times and can't stay balanced for more than half a second or are too intimidated to even try, here are five reasons Headstands aren't happening for you and how to get started hanging upside down.

You're Scared of Falling

This is a very real fear and a valid reason for not even attempting Headstand, but how will you know whether or not you can balance upside down if you never give it a chance? There are many ways you can do a Headstand and avoid the risk of falling. Try one of these: do Headstand in front of a wall, have someone spot you, slowly lift into Headstand instead of kicking up, or start with a Bound Headstand Prep where your feet never leave the ground (it's still a Headstand if you're balancing on your head!).

Your Base Is Unstable

Whether you're doing Bound Headstand (shown in the photo above) or Tripod Headstand with your palms on the ground, your base needs to be strong and stable in order to support the weight of the rest of your body. In Bound Headstand, make sure the heels of your palms are pressed against the back of your head, and your elbows are a few inches away from your ears. In Tripod Headstand, keep your elbows at 90-degree angles. A strong base is the first step in building up to Headstand.

Your Upper Body Is Weak

Although Headstand takes a strong sense of balance, a strong upper body is also essential. If you feel like your upper body is weak, you won't be able to create and hold your stable base. Tone up those biceps, triceps, shoulders, and the muscles in your upper back by doing theseupper-body sculpting poses, and throw in some of these push-up variations.

Your Core Is Weak

Slowly lifting into Headstand rather than jumping into it will help prevent falling, since the momentum of your flailing legs tends to make you lose your balance. And although getting into Headstand this way is much safer, since you're moving slowly, it takes a whole lot of core strength. Start in the Bound Headstand Prep position, with your legs straight and your feet on the floor. Try bending your knees into your chest in the Tuck position, and eventually you will be able to lift your legs straight into the air. If your midsection isn't strong enough yet, practiceBoat pose and scissor abs to target your core.

You're Alignment Is Off

From the photo above, you can see that your hips should be stacked over your shoulders, and your feet stacked over your hips. If your torso isn't in a straight line with your abs engaged, it will be impossible to balance, even with a strong base. Ask your yoga instructor to watch you do Headstand so they can help you get your alignment right.

Black Mehendi is the preferred choice of many for festivals, occasions and weddings or even for casual wear since it imparts a look different from the usual mehndi we do and provides sharper, stronger colour and more prominent designs which lend a great attractive effect.

Whether used for outlining or by itself, black mehendi designs beautifully imbibe the traditional with the modern, thus being trendy and classy all at the same time.

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. But he was far from the first living creature to journey outside Earth’s atmosphere. In the past century, humanity has celebrated a grand tradition of strapping rockets onto animals and firing them at the stars. Some of them were meant to be recovered, but others were never intended to see Earth again.

10Cats

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. But he was far from the first living creature to journey outside Earth’s atmosphere. In the past century, humanity has celebrated a grand tradition of strapping rockets onto animals and firing them at the stars. Some of them were meant to be recovered, but others were never intended to see Earth again.

99Rodents

Rodents have a long history in space: Mice, rats, hamsters, and guinea pigs have all been sent up over the years. Several experiments have been undertaken with rodents in space. In 2001, biomedical engineer Ted Bateman, working in conjunction with NASA and biotech company Amgen, used mice to test a protein called osteoprotegerin. They believed the protein might be useful in halting bone loss associated with aging, and since space accelerates the aging process, it was the perfect environment to conduct the study. Sure enough, the protein worked, and subsequent experiments may go a long way toward preventing bone diseases like osteoporosis in the future.

Another experiment, which featured rats, was conducted by Jeffrey Alberts, a professor of psychology at Indiana University. By subjecting pregnant rats to zero-gravity conditions and studying their offspring, he was able to observe the behavior of animals that had never experienced the limitations of gravity, which displayed a vastly more complex range of movement.

8Fish

In 2012, the Japanese HTV-3 supply ship docked with the International Space Station. They had an aquarium filled with fish called “medaka” onboard. They conducted various experiments on the fish, which were ideal for this purpose due to their quick breeding habits and transparent skin. This allowed the researchers to observe their organs with ease. Like other animals, they were checked for bone degradation and muscle atrophy. Although they are in water, the fish are also subjected to microgravity and behaved oddly in it, swimming in loops instead of straight lines.

7Chimpanzees

As the closest living relative of humans, the contribution of chimpanzees to the space program has proved invaluable. The first chimp in space was Ham, a wild ape caught in Cameroon in 1959. He was trained in brutal fashion at Holloman Air Force Base through a system of positive and negative reinforcement. If Ham did what his trainers wanted, he was given a banana pellet. If he defied commands, he received mild electric shock.

Ham’s test flight was dubbed Mercury-Redstone 2 and took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 31, 1961. There were several malfunctions during the flight, but Ham performed well, and his space suit protected him. He would go on to live at Washington, D.C.’s National Zoo and the North Carolina Zoo. He died at the age of 26.

Ham was succeded by Enos, a better-trained animal who went on to orbit the planet twice. He returned to earth alive, delighted to see his human friends. Unfortunately, his story had a sad ending. Enos died of dysentery(almost assuredly unrelated to his space adventure) about 11 months later.

6Monkeys

Several species of monkey have been sent into space, including squirrel monkeys, macaques, and rhesus monkeys. Well-known for their contributions to medical research, the rhesus is highly intelligent and received the honor of being the first primate ever cloned.

Albert II, a rhesus, was the first monkey in space after his predecessor (Albert) suffered a grim fate when he suffocated during a flight. The subsequent line of Alberts—III, IV, V, and VI—also died (Albert IV died a couple of hours after his return to Earth). Several other nations, including Argentina, France, and Russia, have also used monkeys for spaceflights. Unfortunately, many of them did not survive.

5Amphibians

Amphibians, such as frogs, toads, and newts, have been used by scientists for a long time to gauge the health of an environment. Occupying both water and land, amphibians are almost always the first to succumb to even the most subtle developments, including climate change, pollution, and the introduction of disease.

Dozens of frogs have been sent to space, and at least one poor frog was caught in the (likely deadly) crossfire of a flight he didn’t even get to go on. Pictures of NASA’s Minotaur V rocket blasting off in Virginia made headlines, an airborne frog in the foreground. Iberian ribbed newts have also made several space flights, beginning with the USSR’s Bion 7 in 1985. Scientists were interested in how the environment of space might affect the newt’s ability to regenerate.

4Nematodes

Nematodes, or roundworms, are mostly parasitical (they’re responsible for the trichinosis disease and infest our pet dogs as heartworms) and attract little sympathy—even from otherwise-dedicated animal lovers. These little buggers have also made several trips into space, and they accompanied theApollo 16 mission to the moon.

In 2003, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated when it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. The seven astronauts aboard were killed, but all was not lost. A locker containing a nematode experiment was recovered from the wreckage, and despite insurmountable odds, the worms were still alive. These nematodes revealed that their species suffered some of the same effects as humans when traveling in space, including muscle deterioration and diabetic symptoms.

3Water Bears

It’s almost impossible to comprehend how hostile an environment space can be: a near vacuum devoid of oxygen, alternately blistering hot and glacially cold, and with enough radiation to melt your bones. Without the benefit of a space suit, a human could endure no more than a few seconds before losing consciousness. But passing out would be merciful, since you wouldn’t be awake to feel yourself freeze to death or your lungs rupture from the pressure of that last lungful of air you took.

Water bears are some of the toughest creatures on the planet, capable of surviving conditions that would destroy almost any other living thing. Resembling microscopic, bloated caterpillars, water bears seem nearly invulnerable. When confronted with harsh circumstances, the water bear enters a stasis where its biological functions almost entirely shuts down, allowing it to live for years without eating or drinking—in temperatures both broiling and verging on absolute zero. In 2007, about 3,000 of these creatures were taken on the European Space Agency’s Foton-M3 mission, and were shown to be able to withstand the vacuum of space.

2Spiders

Although they’re easily among the most hated and feared creatures on Earth, spiders have been the subject of several space projects. In 2011, two golden orb spiders, named Gladys and Esmerelda, were housed on the International Space Station where they spun webs and hunted in microgravity. The golden orb was used because it has a habit of dismantling its web every night and building a new one (this would allow the scientist to study more web constructions, if nothing else).

A jumping spider named Nefertiti also lived on the ISS during 2011. She didn’t spin a web, instead choosing to pounce on her prey. Zero gravity seemed to have little effect on her hunting technique. Nefertiti was retired to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s insect zoo upon returning to Earth.

1Dogs

The USSR was well-known for sending a series of dogs into space. The natural assumption would be that the Soviets used purebred, laboratory-raised specimens, but the dogs were actually stray mutts, chosen because the scientists believed that they would have tougher constitutions than lab animals or house pets. Canines were selected because of the ease in training them and their comfort with confined spaces. All of the dogs used were female, as it was easier to design a space suit to collect waste from females.

The most famous space dog was Laika, a stray found on the streets of Moscow. Laika was the first animal ever sent into orbit, a suicide mission aboard Sputnik 2. While most of the animals sent into space were intended to be later retrieved, Laika was never meant to survive. After a set period of days, they would feed her a meal of poisoned food to avoid the agonizing fate of starving to death. However, the craft took on excessive heat, and Laika’s vital signs ceased between five and seven hours after the launch.

In 1960, two dogs named Belka and Strelka became the first animals to survive a trip into orbit. The next year, Strelka had puppies. As a gesture of goodwill, Soviet premier Nikita Khruschev gave one of the puppies, named Pushinka, to John F. Kennedy’s daughter Caroline as a gift. Pushinka would go on to have a litter of her own with Kennedy’s Welsh terrier, Charlie, and JFK would jokingly call their offspring “pupniks.”